“Gen Z rules” wants to continue demos

The “Gen Z regulates” initiative has drawn a positive conclusion from the nationwide youth protests and also wants to take part in the rallies in three weeks. "Today a hundred thousand people showed what they are taking to the streets for," said a spokesman for the initiative's press team, who only wants to appear publicly under his first name, Amadeo. Shortly before 8 p.m. he spoke of more than 100,000 participants, the numbers from six to eight cities were still missing.

The rallies organized by the “Gen Z Rules” campaign were planned in 34 cities, including Berlin, Frankfurt/Main and Munich. However, the number of participants fell short of the organizers' expectations, who had expected at least 182,000 participants. Reporters from many cities reported that the number of participants was around half of what had been stated in advance.

The “Gen Z regulates” initiative calls, among other things, for more money for schools, addiction help and psychotherapy, measures to combat rising living costs, for social justice and more climate protection. She rejects the introduction of compulsory military service and the expansion of state surveillance.

Violence after the end of the actual demos

The majority of the rallies were peaceful. In several cities, however, extremists apparently deliberately mingled with the demonstrations.

“The Gen Z protests turned out to be very peaceful,” said the chairman of the police union for the federal police department, Andreas Roßkopf. However, after the actual events ended, the situation became more serious in some cities. The groups that caused the violence were “autonomous and partly masked people,” Roßkopf said in the Rheinische Post.

Late in the evening and at night there were riots and looting in some cities, although it is unclear whether they were related to the demonstrations. They were particularly violent in Frankfurt am Main and Cologne. A Cologne police spokeswoman said the incidents were more related to the Halloween events than to the aftermath of the “Gen Z” protests.

“We had no influence on that”

“Gen Z” spokesman Amadeo had already distanced himself from the violence that occurred in the context of some demonstrations early in the evening. “We had no influence on what happened after the rallies ended.”

The spokesman announced that the protest would continue: "For us, this is just the first step. We want to take part in the Europe-wide protests on November 20th," Amadeo told the dpa news agency. A broad alliance has called for participation in an international youth strike day on this day, including the Federal Student Conference, which had distanced itself from the "Gen Z regulates" initiative - due to the lack of transparency on the part of the organizing committee.

There is now another date on the “Gen Z regulates” website: November 14th. The initiative calls for protests across Germany.

The “Gen Z regulates” initiative sees itself as an independent, non-partisan and loose association of young people who are committed to “our youth and our future”. “Generation Z” - “Gen Z” for short - is roughly considered to be those born between 1997 and 2010.